06/16/2013

In ‘fixing’ immigration, the fix is in

Congress has begun working through the final passage of a comprehensive immigration bill and regardless of what you have heard, the fix is in. There will be a bill and if you took the time to read it, not only would you hate it, you might be the only one to complete the assignment.

Spoiler alert: The leadership will make sure the bill passes, no matter what it says.

Here are some scary numbers:

A study by the Heritage Foundation, authored by Robert Rector and Jason Richwine, estimated that in 2010 the average illegal alien family received $24,721 in government benefits and services, while contributing just over $10,387 in taxes.

Upon amnesty, these aliens will be granted free and open access to some 80 different means-tested welfare programs, including Obamacare, Social Security and Medicare. Not only blowing the budgetary gaskets of these programs, but more importantly for Democrats expanding the payrolls of the middle-class bureaucrats and paper-shufflers.

Rector and Richwine estimate that even if new immigrants are not allowed to feed at the trough for 13 years, because of their limited skill sets, the average alien legalized in the bill will receive nearly $600,000 in government benefits than he will pay in taxes.

It seems like we should check with China first to make sure they are willing to cover the freight, no?

This situation will be further exasperated by the fact that newly documented workers will drive down real wages of regular Americans.

In Congress today, there are two redoubts for conservatives to defend their principles, conservatives in the Senate and the GOP majority in the House.

In the Senate, it is the cadre forming around senators Rand H. Paul (R.-Ky.), Michael S. Lee (R.-Utah) and R. Edward “Ted” Cruz (R.-Texas). Other colleagues fall in and out of their formation depending on the issues and interests at stake, but in the main they are the steadiest, most effective conservative in the upper chamber.

Even when a bill passes the Senate, House Republicans watching these three men pick up where they left off making the House a place where bad legislation dies.

What is different this time is that the House GOP leadership has already told Paul, Lee and Cruz they are taking the deal and taking the dive. Some on the House side have gone so far as to say that if conservative in the House or Senate make too much noise, the leadership will attack them as out-of-step troublemakers.

Look for the Senate to pass its version of the bill before the July 4 recess. The House will begin its own proceedings on immigration soon and may have its bill done before the Senate, since there are not nearly the procedurals devices available in the lower chamber to slow down a bill leadership wants to pass.

Remember, dear reader, Republicans are not conservatives. Republicans are politicians and their party is where conservatives are most comfortable right now. Republicans are people who take checks from the Chamber of Commerce, so if American business needs cheap engineers, nannies and lettuce-pickers, guess what Republicans will support?

Another characteristic about Republicans is they crave acceptance. They wander the halls of Capitol Hill asking each other: “What don’t people like us?”

Somebody convinced the GOP leadership that if they support the immigration bill, people will like them, and that settled that. Of course, this is nonsense, but it is such sweet nonsense.

For conservatives, watching Republicans is like watching Lucy hold a football for Charlie Brown.

By Labor Day, the GOP leadership will have helped President Barack Obama turn his summer of scandal and retreat into a triumph with the signing of the immigration bill, and once again the Republicans will be flat on their back as Lucy laughs all the way home.